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Tina Musonza

Herald Correspondent

STEPS are being taken to enforce the ban on privately-paid extra lessons after it emerged that some teachers are not doing their work during normal learning hours to corruptly earn more income from desperate parents.

Ministry of Secondary and Primary Education spokesperson Mr Taungana Ndoro said the practice appeared to be particularly rife in Harare Metropolitan province where teachers were putting personal interests ahead of those of learners.

Under Government policy, teachers in the public system are forbidden to charge for extra lessons, although they may provide extra tuition for an entire class without extra pay.

Speaking during the second Integrity Icon Summit in Harare last Friday, Mr Ndoro said there were schools in Harare Metropolitan which had pressing issues with regard to corruption which had to be dealt with to keep the integrity in the education system intact.

“The schools where you find issues of extra lessons are those schools in communities that are resourced but most of our schools are in the rural areas. In the rural areas it is nearly impossible to conduct paid-for extra lessons in places like Rushinga, Muzarabani, Gokwe, Nkayi, Bulilima and others. But go to the urban and metropolitan areas, Glen View, Highfield, Mabvuku, Mpopoma, Pumula, that’s where you start having this problem and we can count those number of schools. They are just fraction so the integrity is still intact,” said Mr Ndoro.

He said teachers were at times being swayed by those around them who were luring them into corruption.

Government had taken intensive measures to deal with teachers who were charging fees for tutoring children during their spare time. Well-resourced parents usually fell victim to these unscrupulous teachers.

“We want to send a clear message that makes it a deterrent for anyone to be unethical. There are a lot of teachers, some of whom have 15 to 20 years of experience right now, who would never take money for extra lessons before but are now also doing it because quite a number of their colleagues are doing it. They have also joined the bandwagon,” Mr Ndoro said.

“There are heads who were morally upright but because another head within their district is taking money for enrolment, they are also doing it. This is where we say we need deterrent prosecutions”.